Opening the 2nd half of the quizzing season

Our efforts at Conestoga paid off as we started a slow recovery upward. Now we needed to continue it into the 5th week of quizzing. If we didn't, the season could be over just as the second half was beginning. We were looking for at least 230 points to get us back to our week 2 average of 92.5 points/match. That average would keep us alive.

I went to Spring City for church. Today was what I called "causual duct tape day." I wasn't dressed up, but I had the duct tape on all over. I had a duct tape collar, duct tape tie, duct tape manacles, duct tape belt, and a duct tape cap. OK, maybe with the duct tape belt and cap I "cheated" on because I just put duct tape over a real cap and belt, but everything else was original. I had some duct tape props too. I brought back the duct tape baby, which has been described anywhere from a voodoo doll to the robot on the Day the Earth Stood Still. I also had a boquet of 3/4 dozen duct tape roses, which a few lucky ladies got (and I still intended to give some out to some, so it's not too late). My secret sponser got me some Swedish Fish and PB M&Ms. Thank you secret sponser.

After lunch with Brandon Tedor, we had our normal practice matches. The first three we had a lot of bonuses from errors. It gave our rookies a chance to get a lot of practice, thanks to Tim and Mike. But finally by the last practice match, Tim and Mike could buzz in and answer correctly. Unfortunatly, our rookies couldn't do anything then. It seemed like almost perfect timing, but just after we finished our last practice match and turned off the buzzers, the power went out. It was because of the heavy wind and on-and-off flurries. Luckily my mom cooked a dinner that didn't need to be heated. We ate and left a little before 4 so the coaches could make it to coach's meeting.

We arrived at LMH about an hour before coaches. Since only one coach had to go, Vicki went to the meeting, and Dave found an empty classroom where we could practice. We did rounds of questions. Tim decided just like last year we could switch nametags for this. I was Mike, and Mike was me. He didn't do too good of a job being me because he errored a lot. I did a good job of him: saying his old catch words, grunting a lot, flexing my muscles, "texting Steph" (haha, riiiiight) and beating around the bush for 28.5 seconds. The only thing I didn't do like Schwagg was error. That's good. Before the matches, I spat out my gum and started eating dark chocolate AKA "brain food" (dark chocolate has been said to stimulate memory). After Zion led a wonderful praise time, Merv made announcements and sent us off to quiz.

Before we had our quizmatch, I got to watch a quizmatch of Slate Hill 1 vs. Bowmansville 2. I had been wanting to watch a Slate Hill 1 match, but had not gotten the chance. It was a typical Slate Hill match. Mike Good started the match off. He quizzed out. They got team bonus. They pretty much dominated the match. But I noticed something important. Slate Hill 1 wasn't necesarily fast buzzing, but more..."smart buzzing". All were good buzzes, and they beat the other team in. They weren't concured about how many words came out, but rather what words came out. The only times the other team got in first were bad buzzers. It was 4 words, but Slate Hill 1 knew "In what city did..." was not enough. I took notes :)

Now we had our match. It was Spring City vs. Hinkletown 1, 11th place vs. 4th place. We were expecting a struggle, but the match went differently than expected. I quizzed out as soon was question 4. Tim followed me in quizzing out. Mike got two. Bobby got a bonus, but we still needed one more for team bonus. The other side wasn't looking too active. Cody Hoover quizzed out, and that seemed like it. On the last question, Mike eased up a bit to let Chelsea, Alyssa or Bobby get in for team bonus. Hinkletown 1 took advantage of this and got their last points. Spring City won 100-45.

Between my matches, I went to watch Akron 1 vs. Conestoga 2 for scouting. For some reason, Akron 1 only had 3 of its 4 quizzers this Sunday. It hurt them. Conestoga 2 has their act together. They took control of the match. I thought the match was going slow so I didn't stay the whole time because I wanted to make my match. Conestoga 2 got 2 quizouts and was in the lead when I left. I got to my match's room sooner than usual because they just got to the next question!

We had our next match vs. Emmanuel 2. The team consisted of 4 rookie girl quizzers, and a girl emu. I had predicted this match in the beginning of the year to be the second easiest. It was the easiest. I quizzed out on question 5...Mike followed on question 7....Tim then on question 10.....and even Bobby quizzed out! We had 4 quizouts!! Plus, all 4 of those who quizzed out did it all on buzz ins, so we got team bonus! Even Chelsea buzzed in and got one right. Actually, Spring City buzzed in all 15 questions. We errored 2 times, giving Emmanuel 2 a couple chances to score points, but the bonuses were dropped. We won with a 170 point shutout.

So I finished the night by watching Slate Hill 2 vs. Maple Grove and Petra 2 vs. Rockville 2. I watched Petra 2 because they are next week's competition and one of their quizzers is in my English Comp. class at LBC. They did just as well as we did. Dave quizzed out on all buzzes question 3. They also scored 170 points, but Rockville 2 found some room for getting points of their own. Good job Petra 2.

So I figured it out. I am now at 32.5 point average, which should move me up. Spring City scored 270 points this night, moving our average to 95.83. This should shoot us up, unless everyone else had a good day like we did, such as Petra 2. Speaking of which, I figuring Petra 2 to take the top seed unless they scored under 100 points in their first match. In two matches, Tim scored 70 points, Mike scored 55, Bobby scored 45, and Chelsea scored 10. Spring City is back, and we're having fun doing it. Let's see if we can repeat next week.